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Startup hub opening for CU Boulder students to tinker, learn

By Elizabeth Hernandez

Staff Writer

Posted:
01/08/2018 04:53:48 PM MST

Updated:
01/08/2018 07:57:05 PM MST

From left, Shawn Devian, of Housing Construction Services, and program coordinator Nick Karas install a ledge in the new startup hub at Williams Village on Monday on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

A new hub fostering startup culture at the University of Colorado is scheduled to open in late January, hoping to offer students space to tinker, learn and — as the hub's blinking, custom-made sign encourages — find their spark.

"It's giving students that one little piece of fire that will ignite their studies into action," said CU senior Alec Parezo, who's brought a student perspective to the design of the new space.

The startup hub, located in the Village Center in Williams Village, was born when leaders of the university's new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative caught wind of an upcoming project in their wheelhouse that lacked vision.

"We got nosy and found people involved and started asking them what was going on," said Sarabeth Berk, assistant director of the initiative.

A 1,975-square-foot room in the Village Center was set aside for entrepreneurial activities, but what that might look like remained undecided around the end of 2016.

"We came to realize there wasn't a hub — a gathering place — where entrepreneurial-minded people from all disciplines could come and learn," Berk said.

At the beginning of 2017, Berk swooped in to liven up the blank canvas.

In February, undergraduate students from all majors were invited to view the empty space and draw sketches of how they imagined it being used.

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Students envisioned everything from ball pits to bean bag lofts and juice bars, and their ideas helped shape the creative design of the space, Berk said.

The initiative also gathered students to tour local co-working spaces to get a feel for how industry professionals utilized their spaces.

"We're trying to give students more of an industry feel in the school, as a whole," Parezo said.

Mimicking the scrappy spirit of entrepreneurs, the design team started snooping around CU's storage facilities when it came time to furnish the space.

"We, essentially, went shopping on campus," Berk said.

Old library furnishings, cabinets, stools and even a table previously used to roll out pastry dough were repurposed.

The space was beginning to take shape, and Berk and the involved students devised a concrete plan for what would go on once everything was ready.

The startup hub would have three purposes: a co-working space; a makerspace with tools such as 3-D printing, a virtual reality station and other devices to provide prototyping support; and educational experiences such as workshops and guest speakers, where students could learn and grow into better entrepreneurs.

"We want to serve the never evers, meaning those who want to find out about entrepreneurship and innovation, but also those who have already started a venture," Berk said. "Being in a place where a large portion of freshman live, we want to expose them from the first day of campus. We hope the upperclassmen become the lifeblood of the room, going there to mentor or hang out and lead some of the programming."

Henry Kvietok, a freshman involved in the space's development, sees the hub as the perfect conglomeration of his interests.

"My dream career would be in product design that would be encompassing the making of the product, but then the entrepreneurial business side of the product," Kvietok said. "I'm just super thankful that I've been given the opportunity to have such an influence on this campus movement."

Another influencer: the former Spark Boulder, a co-working space ignited by CU students several years ago that didn't survive.

"This is an homage," Berk said. "We wanted to remember that as our predecessor."

Folks interested in the grand opening of the hub can RSVP online to the event, which begins at 5 p.m. on Jan. 23 in the Village Center.

Kvietok is eager to get cracking in the new digs.

"I don't know how many people I talk to on a daily basis who have an idea and say, 'Someone should invent this,'" he said. "I always say, 'Why don't you do it?' Now, there's a place I can tell them to go to."

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